I conducted a very interesting experiment this week.  I presented a basic information management roadmap workshop at a business process management (BPM) conference.  It went quite well and I think (and know from feedback) that most people got something of value out of it.  That’s not to say it didn’t have the awkwardness of an information management guy presenting to a process-focused audience.  It was a challenge.  

But it was really an experiment in cross-dicipline workshopping.  I have very little interest in promoting information management as a function these days.  I agree that the part of most organisations that ensures that information is invested in as an asset simply doesn’t exist (hint: it isn’t I.T.) but I’m more interested in what I call “capability engineering”.

My work on the ManageWithoutThem Management Model has – among other themes – determined that information management IS management.  The process-based management paradigm has enormous value but is basically being eroded by technological advancements and network intelligence that puts outcomes (and in particular information outcomes) ahead of the processes that produce them.

The very idea of a business process management (BPM) workshop disturbs me slightly.  As does an information management (IM) workshop.  I’m more interested in developing hard-to-replicate business capabilities that combine people, process, information, and technology.  

The whole concept of BPM conferences, information management conferences, and any other conference based on a functional view of organisations is completely at odds with the capability-based governance view that says: start with what you want to be able to do for your customers or with your assets and decide who is responsible – and then let them coordinate across functions.

For those that requested the workshop materials the slides and hand-outs are below: